Ahobilam/Gandikota trip

Day 1

We started our 3 day weekend trip on a friday morning, to visit Ahobilam, and Gandikota fort enroute.  We left at around 7am from Bangalore.  It was a 6 hour drive.  We stopped at Nandi Upachar, north of Devanahalli for breakfast.  We drove via Kadiri, and reached Gandikota fort around 1.30pm.  Before reaching the fort, we stopped at Haritha hotel for lunch.   It is an APTDC hotel at Gandikota.  Spacious campus with a big children's park.  Folks were friendly.  For lunch, they only had fried rice, jeera rice and white rice.  They told that would have meals and anything else ready, if we order in advance.   The hotel had accommodation, both  a/c and non a/c rooms.  The view of the fort from the hotel was excellent.

Gandikota fort as seen from hotel

After lunch, we drove to the fort.  We walked through the fort walls.  There were lots of people living inside the fort, there were several small shops.   

Fort entrance

Kids enjoyed walking across the boulders.  We saw a Granary, Pond and a horse stable on the way to canyon. 

Horse Stable

Granary

Pond

 In about 20 minutes, we reached the canyon rim.  The Penna river, flowing in the bottom of the canyon was almost dry.  But the canyon itself was scenic.

Canyon

The Ranganatha Swamy temple was architecturally beautiful inside, with minutely carved pillars.  There was no vigraham inside the temple.  There was also a mosque which was also architecturally very beautiful.

Ranganatha swamy temple, on the way to the canyon

Inside Ranganatha Swamy Temple

After a 2 hour halt at the fort, we continued driving towards Ahobilam.  It took an hour and half to get to the Allagadda village on NH 40.  Past the village, we took the right onto Ahobilam Road.   We called the Ahobilam Mutt manager Mr. Badri to get directions.  We entered an arch on the road, and drove further for 4 kms.  There was a board on the right side that said 'Nava Ahobilam Guesthouse'.  We had booked one a/c and one non-a/c room for that weekend.  We reached the guesthouse at 6.30pm

Nava Ahobilam Guesthouse

Rooms were comfortable and large.  Guesthouse folks were friendly and helpful.  But, no food available in/around the place.  In the morning, if we request, they get coffee from somewhere.  There is a geyser in both rooms.   There were also power outages during our stay, although manager claims power cuts aren't usual.    Although the rooms were well ventilated, we couldn't open any of the windows because of mosquitos and bugs.  The mosquito mesh were worn out.

Nava Ahobilam temples map

Ahobilam is a noted pilgrimage center for Hindus.  It is one of the 108 Divya Desams, and hence is especially important for Srivaishnavas.  It is 68kms from Nandyal Railway station.  It is also called Sringavel Kundram and Nava Narasimha Kshetram.  Ahobilam is basically divided into Lower Ahobilam and Upper Ahobilam.   In Lower Ahobilam, aka Chinna Ahobilam, there is also a temple of Prahalada Varadhan,  aspect of Lord Narasimha blessing Prahlada.  Upper Ahobilam, aka Pedda-Ahobilam,  is about 8kms from lower Ahobilam.  It is situated at 2800ft above sea level.  At Ahobilam, Lord Narasimha was born in a pillar, to kill a demon, Hiranya kasipu.  It is believed that the Gods while witnessing the fierce angry Ugra form that the lord took to tear Hiranya Kasipu to pieces, praised him as 'what a great strength!!', which is what the word "Aho - bilam"  stands for.  Another version for the derivation of the name is the cave, the Ahobila, where Garuda worshipped and realized the lord, the place itself came to be called Ahobilam.

After refreshing, we drove to Ahobilam, 12kms from our guesthouse.  There is an entry fee of Rs.50 to enter the area, which is valid for 24 hours.  We went to Prahalada Varadhan temple.  It is the main temple at the Lower Ahobilam.    The day we visited the temple happened to be a Varamahalakshmi day, so we were lucky to see Oonjal for Taayar.  

Oonjal for Taayar at Prahalada Varadhan Temple

Day 2

The Ahobilam Mutt is right next to the temple entrance.  Mr. Badri, from the Mutt helped us find a guide for our trek.  The plan was to cover the 5 upper Ahobilam temples in the morning.  Four of them need to be trekked, total of roughly 7-8kms in the hills, and the fifth one right on the road.  The trail is a circular path.  So, by the time we visit all the 4 temples, we would be close to the starting point.  Our guide estimated it would take around 4 hours.   Post lunch, we had planned to cover the lower Ahobilam temples on car/jeep.  

After breakfast, we drove to upper Ahobilam temple, which was  8kms from lower Ahobilam and parked our car.  Near the parking lot, there were plenty of doli folks, waiting for customers.  Our guide spoke and arranged 2 dolis, for mom and dad.  They charged Rs.3000.00 per doli.  The rates are fixed.  There are a total of about 70 dolis folks in the union.  There are 20 dolis available.  Each doli is a comfortable chair that is tied to two wooden bars, that is carried by 4 people.

Parents carried in 2 dolis

Usually most of the temples are closed from 1p to 3p.   While hiking up the hills, there are no shops selling water or food anywhere.  So take your water and snacks with you.  There are plenty of monkeys near the temples.  A backpack is useful to keep all your belongings, as monkeys can grab anything we carry in hand.  Also be aware of them when taking out and eating snacks.  Good comfortable slippers should be ok.  We wore shoes.  Although it made our trek very comfortable, it was no fun removing and putting it on several times throughout the day.   Our guide suggested that we don't wear socks.  It made things easier to remove only the shoes when we reached every temple.  The day was sunny and hot.  Eastern Ghats are very dense and there are lots of trees around, and so the trail is mostly shaded.   Overall it is not a difficult hike.  

One of us luckily knew the local language, telugu.  Most of the time we didn't have any trouble not knowing the local language, because the folks we mostly dealt with, the guide and the Mutt folks, spoke tamil fluently.    But to communicate with shopkeepers and everywhere else it would be handy to know the local language.

For women, if you plan to hike up to all the temples, saree may not be comfortable.  Salwar would be good.  There are no bathroom facilities anywhere near the temple that we knew.

We started to trek at around 9am.   Our guide was patient, and explained the background of each temple as we went.  We visited the Nava Narasimhar temples in the following order:

1.  Ahobilam Narasimhar temple:

It took 10 mins of climbing stairs to reach the temple.  It is the main temple on the upper Ahobilam.  The Lord appears in his fierce form, called Ugra Narasimha.  It is believed that the lord was Swyambhu, meaning self manifested.    Of all temples, this one was the most crowded.  There was a big queue, so we bought the Rs.50/- ticket to get in faster.  

Local folks have the practice of giving goat sacrifice every saturday near the Main temple.  We saw folks carrying carcasses covered in sack hanging from sticks, coming out from behind the temple.  We even saw a trial of blood drips.  It was not a pleasant sight.

Upper Ahobilam Temple / the Main temple / the Ahobila Narasimhar Temple

2.  Varaha Narasimhar temple:

We further hiked 1 km, nearly for 15 mins to reach this temple.  The path was full of boulders, and several tiny streams, that we had to cross.  The temple was small, the deity in this temple is in form of a boar and the lord is with Lakshmi.

3.  Jwala Narasimhar temple:

We trekked further for about 3kms, took 30 min that included a climb of around 500 steps.   At one point, our parents had to get off the doli and walk up a little bit, since the switchback was very tight to turn the doli.

Parents had to get off doli and climb up a small patch

Ugra Stambam, as seen from a bridge below.  The lord came out of this pillar and appeared in the form of Narasimha

The Ugra Stambam is a 3 hour trek from the Jwala Narasimhar temple.  Since it was rainy season, our guide didn't want us to go.

Steps on our way to Jwala Narasimhar temple

When we neared the temple,  there was a place where water was trickling onto the trail from rocks above.  We crossed quickly to avoid getting wet.

Entrance to Jwala Narasimhar temple

This temple, is right under an enormous rock, and is believed to be the actual spot where the fierce anger of the lord reached its culmination, when he tore Hiranya Kasipu.

Rakti Kunda Pond

Rakta kund pond, is one of the most important water ponds in Ahobilam.  It is right by the entrance to the Jwala Narasimhar temple.  It is believed that the lord washed his bloody hands after killing Hiranya Kasipu in this pond.

4.  Malola Narasimhar temple:

To reach this temple, we had to climb down the steps, cross a bridge and then climb down further.  It was around 2kms, and took another 30 minutes.   The Ugra Stambam will be clearly visible from the bridge.  The diety in this temple appears in graceful form, as Lord Narasimha is seen with the consort Lakshmi.  The word 'Malola' means beloved to Lakshmi.  

View while we walked towards Malola temple

We had lemon rice prasadam in this temple, which we ate carefully since the entire area was surrounded by monkeys.  But curiously, none of them entered the temple.

Malola Temple

Now that we had covered all the 4 temples by foot, we walked further about 2kms, back to our car.  To be noted is that on saturdays, lots of visitors come to the temple, both local and out of towners, like ourselves.  Traffic jam was severe near the parking lot.  A vehicle hit us from the back, and didn't show any sense of responsibility when we went and asked them.  They just sat there in their car, completely ignoring us.   Our guide also discouraged us from fighting with them.  We were told they would have had meat and gotten drunk, and usually behave very unreasonably.

5.  Karanja Narasimhar temple:

We started driving back, reached Karanja Narasimhar temple in a few minutes, which was 1km from the main temple.  The diety is installed under the Karanja vraksham tree.

Karanja Narasimhar Temple

We had successfully completed the morning session.  We drove back and reached Ahobilam Mutt at 1.30p.  Outside was scorching hot, but inside the Mutt was nice and cool.  We had lunch there, took a short nap in the Mutt hall.  Our guide woke us at 3.30p. After refreshing quickly, we started our afternoon agenda.  

6.  Chatravata Narasimhar temple:

Chatravadaa Narasimhar temple is about 10 min drive from the lower Ahobilam.  The diety is installed under a peepal tree surrounded by thorny bushes, hence the name.  It is believed that there were two gandarvars named Aaha and Oho who pleases god with their singing.  

Chatravata Narasimhar Temple

7.  Yogananda Narasimhar temple:

Another short drive brought us to this temple.  It is believed after killing Hiranyakasipu, Lord Narasimha taught Prahlada several yogic postures.

Yogananda Narasimhar temple

8.  Bhargava Narasimhar temple:

Two of the 9 temples are located off road and cannot be accessed by car.  Bhargava Narasimhar temple and the Pavana Narasimhar temple.   We need to hire a jeep.    The rate is fixed at Rs.2400.00 for both Bhargava temple and Pavana temple, whether they are done on the same day or in two days.   Our guide helped hire one.

We parked our car near the Udupi hotel and got onto the jeep.  This temple is about 2-3kms from lower Ahobilam.  Since it is a short distance, we can do this temple in the evening also.  

We also arranged doli for our parents since this temple has 130 steps to climb.  Doli folks also rode in the jeep with us.  The doli here was different than our earlier doli.  This had one wooden bar with cloth tied like Jhula.  A person can sit on one side.  Two people carry the doli.

We started at 4.30pm, reached the temple in about 15 minutes.  After we  got off the jeep, we had to walk for about 10 minutes to reach the bottom of the steps.  There was a pond near the temple, called the 'Bhargava tirtham'.   It is said that the pond never dries up.  

Bhargava Narasimhar Temple

We climbed the 130 steps, which took another 5-10 mins.  After an excellent dharshan, we returned back in the jeep, to our car at around 5.30pm.  It took approximately 1 hour in all.   We then packed dinner in Udupi and drove back to our rooms.

 Day 3

Folks who had been to Ahobilam before, advised us to visit the Pavana Narasimhar temple in the morning.   Since they went during summer, they also warned us that the  off road will get extremely dusty, that by the time we return, we will be covered completely in red sand/dust.

9.  Pavana Narasimhar temple:

We started from our rooms at 6.45a, had idly and pongal at Udupi and started in jeep at around 8am.  The entire 15-20km stretch was filled with boulders and it was a bumpy ride.  Since it had rained the night before, it wasn't dusty as we had expected.  Instead it was very slippery, muddy and filled with huge puddles everywhere.  But the driver knew the terrain and drove well.  

Chowsinga base camp, enroute to Pavana Narasimhar temple

We spotted few other jeeps on our way.  It took around 1 hour 45 minutes  to reach the temple.   The driver stopped at every possible opportunity to fill the radiator with water - at the entrance, at the camp, at the temple and once again on our return, at the camp - which didn't even have a cap on.   But we are indebted to the jeep and the driver for taking and bringing us back safely. 

We had excellent Dharshan.  There were hardly a handful of people at that time.

Pavana Narasimhar Temple, situated on the banks of Pavana river

The deity is Lord Narasimha with ChenchuLakshmi taayar, who is believed to be a local woman from the Chenchu tribe.   The love of Lord Narasimha with Chencheta, the tribal woman, is popular in many folk songs of this place.

One other notable place in Ahobilam is the Prahalada Mette, which is a small shrine situated in a cave, on a hill between Ugra Stambam and upper Ahobilam.  It is dedicated to Prahala Narasimha swamy and the image of the Prahalada is installed in the cave.

We started back from the Pavana Narasimha temple at 9.30a, reached the forest gate exit at 10.35a.  In about another 10 minutes we reached where we had parked our car.  After successfully finishing our entire agenda, we once again, visited Prahalad Varadhan temple.  Later, we had lunch at Matt and checked out of our rooms.  

We started our drive to Bangalore at around 1pm and reached Bangalore at 7.30p.  There were no place to stop for food or bathrooms, but we also didn't look around carefully.    The road was great until Kadapa, 4 lane road.  After that they were 2 lane roads, but was reasonable.   The road quality glaringly looked bad when we entered Karnataka.

If you have an extra day, you can visit Belum caves, or Horsely hills on the way back.